Social dialogue is a key condition to achieve a just transition in the auto sector.

Technological change, European regulations, the intensifying competition in European and global markets, and supply change challenges oblige companies to adapt their strategies for the future. These changes raise important questions for workers such as the impact on employment, on the future of sites, on working conditions, or on skills needs. Involving workers and their trade unions in shaping strategies and in implementing them secures that workers and the trade unions that represent them are at the table and not on the menu.

 The Stellantis Group has announced that no site closures are foreseen in the “Fast Lane 2030” Plan, which is a positive reassurance for the 124k employees working for Stellantis in Europe. However, a lot remains to be done to secure a long-term industrial future for all the production sites of the group. Social dialogue at company and sites level is instrumental to provide clarity and mitigate anxiety.

Foundries and forges are strategic assets

Taking place on the site of Mulhouse, which is not only an assembly plant but also an automotive industry hub with forges, foundries and machining centers the meeting and the site visit have highlighted the importance of parts manufacturing to keep the activities and the know-how but also to make industry green and circular. 

Keeping in Europe those activities, and the entire auto supply chain, is crucial for employment and value-added but also to secure that “Made in Europe” will not be an end of pipe labelling exercise. Now that the EU Parliament and Member states are discussing the Auto package and the Industrial Accelerator Act, its is worth reminding that screwdriver factories located in Europe are not the “Made in Europe” that workers want. We need to keep ambitious European content requirements for mechanisms supporting the market uptake of clean vehicles.

Partnerships: short term benefits but long term risks

The Joint ventures with Dongfeng and Leapmotor that the group has recently announced will deepen partnerships and extend the manufacturing footprint of Chinese car makers in Europe. These partnerships provide short term opportunities, for instance for the incorporation of digital and electrification technologies that these foreign companies have developed, and they will also secure the future of manufacturing sites in Europe for the years to come. Nevertheless, these partnerships also raise a number of questions for workers. 

What will be the impact on sales of existing brands, on employment and working conditions, on the supply chain and also on research and innovation? Social dialogue has its role to play to provide answers to those questions but EU policy makers here again must now put substance behind the “Made in Europe” ambition. Foreign investments are welcome to Europe provided that new comers generate co-benefits for the whole society and not only for shareholders. The IAA must foresee conditionalities securing that foreign investors will keep and create quality jobs in Europe and that they will work with local suppliers. In the same way, Europe must protect its R&D and innovation since today’s research makes the industrial success of tomorrow.